TL;DR – dog not eating only on days favourite human goes to work and other human is in house. Doesn't happen when both humans are out of house. Any tips?
We got a rescue dog, coming up on 3 months ago, approx 4yrs old, small yorkie. She has settled in well, couple of nervous wobbles along the way but generally is happy, energetic, and relaxed. She has a crate to sleep in, and during the day when she is alone, we fence off that area so she has more space to move around. We initially did this as she seemed to not be toilet trained, but that has since gotten much better and so the plan is to soon allow free roaming downstairs. It also helped develop a good routine when we go to work, to bed, and when we are out of the house – when it's time, she happily bounds over to the area and sleeps in her crate. I WFH the majority of the time, and so she is let out of the area every couple of hours for a play/walk/cuddle etc, until the workday is over. My other half works in the office 2 days per week.
Despite me being with her the most, and the chief meal giver, my other half is her favourite human and I am the spare. Having said that, she still shows me lots of affection, trust, and will cuddle up with me if we're alone. However if both humans are in the house, she is a velcro dog with her chosen one. She is a very quiet dog; we have never heard her cry or whimper, and the odd single bark she has done, she looks more surprised about it than us. So her communication style is very subtle.
The issue is, the 2 days her favourite human is in the office, she totally goes off her food, won't even accept a favourite treat. Her belly sounds upset and bubbly, and she looks to eat grass on walks. She therefore is also lethargic during that day. She will also dramatically shiver. at times. From observing her, sometimes it seems like she doesn't recognise the different feeling of an empty (hungry) belly vs. a sick one, so just doesn't eat. This generally starts before her human leaves the house. During the day, she will still interact with me and play ball (her absolute favourite) but if that stops, she just sadly retreats to her crate. Of course, by evening time, she starts to perk up and will eventually eat food later into the evening when her favourite human is back.
What is odd is that there is one day in the week when both of us will be out of the house for a few hours, and there is no issue. We have a camera, and she pretty much sleeps the whole time and eats her food with no issue, no bubbly belly, no shivers.
We're just wondering if there is anything we can do for her to stop this, quite specific, anxiety? She is a very small dog, and when she lets her belly go empty, it can start a bit of a cycle of her feeling sick, not eating, feeling worse etc. We pretty much keep the same routine every day. She gets walks, play, toys, sleep, every day so there is stimulation and distraction (ie. she isn't bored). I will say, she does have a slight flair for the dramatics, so is she just playing me for the fool when we're alone? It doesn't seem to be a GI issue because monitoring the routine, it only ever happens when the favourite human has to work from the office.
Any suggestions, tips or tricks we can try?